A look at the Middle East

Let the Cleansing Begin!

Remember when, a few months ago, Israel adopted a military order that would allow the government deport tens of thousands of Palestinians? The order existed previously, but was under civil jurisdiction. Thanks to the new order, decisions would be made in a military court – meaning no appeals! Don’t worry, said government officials, it is simply procedural and no mass deportations are going to take place.

[tweetmeme] Well, if the Jerusalem Center for Social and Economic Rights (JCSER) is to be believed, open the gates and let the ethnic cleansing…err…security deportations begin! Reportedly, Israel is ready to deport over 20,000 Palestinians from Jerusalem. One can only hope that this is incorrect as it truly amounts to ethnic cleansing.

RAMALLAH, Aug. 8 (Xinhua) — Israel intends to deport over 20,000 Palestinians out of Jerusalem whom it said don’t have legal residency to stay in the city, a leading Palestinian human rights defender said on Sunday.

“Israeli Interior Ministry has already begun deporting Palestinians under the pretext that they stay in Jerusalem illegally,” Ziad Hammouri, head of the Jerusalem center for social and economic rights (JCSER), told Xinhua.

The new procedure targets West Bank citizens who live in Jerusalem and possess property and ownerships even before Israel occupied the city in 1967, he said.

“It’s an Israeli demographic war against the Arab presence in Jerusalem,” Hammouri said.

The issue started two years ago when Israeli Interior Ministry asked the West Bank citizens who live with Jerusalemite wives in the holy city to apply for temporary residence permits, he added.

The Palestinians want the eastern part of Jerusalem as a future capital for their statehood, but Israeli leaders stress that the holy city cannot be divided.

International Criminal Law

NEW POST

All of the sudden Israel became a source of inspiration and a leading factor in American Jewish life. Often it was heralded as the “light unto nations” and various narratives at this time sprang up with great proliferation. Criticism of Israel and its policies within the community and within the world in general was kept hidden to a point that criticism was (and still now) considered anti-Semitic or “self hating.” This newly found love affair produced a plethora of “authoritative” works by prominent American Jews and their sympathizers that were held in high regard. Miraculously these books coincided with key events in the history where Israel was rightly being condemned for massive atrocities in the occupied territories and foreign countries such as Lebanon.